Vijayawada: Telugu Desam faces internal squabbles and is forced to change candidates in some constituencies even as the filing of poll nominations has begun in the state.
The Telugu Desam, Jana Sena and BJP that forged a poll alliance had shared the total 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the order of 144-17, 21-2 and 10-6 respectively. This was after a series of discussions between top BJP and other leaders, including Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda. However, this meant the hopefuls in the TD had to sacrifice their interests in some constituencies.
Though the TD officially announced its nominee Pyla Prasad at Madugula in Anakapalli Lok Sabha segment, a proposal is on to replace him with Bandaru Satyanarayana.
TD chief Naidu, during his recent visit to north Andhra districts, lashed out at Bandaru for seeking the seat and even threatening to switch loyalty to another party. There is also a proposal vis-a-vis the Anaparthy Assembly segment to replace BJP’s nominee M. Shiva Krishnam Raju to accommodate TD’s Nallamilli Ramakrishna Reddy.
As for the Denduluru Assembly segment, there is a proposal to replace TD’s official nominee Chinthamaneni Prabhakar with BJP candidate Garapati Seetaramanjaneya Chowdary. There seems to be no adjustment of seats except to force the official nominee to forfeit his allotted seat.
Similarly, the Undi Assembly segment is also facing trouble as there are two more contestants in addition to the existing official nominee from TD and sitting MLA Manthena Rama Raju.
Vetukuri Venkata Siva Rama Raju won the segment for two terms in 2009 and 2014. Raju intends to contest as an independent candidate in the upcoming polls.
There is a proposal to accommodate K. Raghu Rama Krishna Raju from TD in the Undi Assembly segment by replacing the existing candidate, as Raju joined the TD recently in the presence of party chief Naidu.
Political analysts say TD chief is in the habit of making last-minute changes of nominees, until the last date for filing of nominations. Some of those who have been accommodated are yet to get active on the campaign front, for fear that Naidu could change his mind at any time.
